I was invited to speak as part of this year’s Environmental Forum at SSU, a lecture series put on by the Environmental Studies and Planning Department. I had a GREAT time giving this talk – I focused on the salmonid restoration that’s been done on Dutch Bill Creek near Occidental, and it went really well. The students were attentive, and asked a bunch of great questions at the end. Loved it!
My Restoration Ecology class spent the day in the Laguna Santa Rosa, helping plant sedges on a site being restored by the Laguna Foundation. Hard work, and good fun.
Another Restoration Ecology field trip . . . this time, to Point Reyes, to visit the long-term field exclosure experiment being conducted by Dr. Hall Cushman, to investigate the effects of Tule elk on vegetation. We also practiced some field sampling techniques. We did see a number of Tule elk, although I didn’t manage to get any good photos. Still, they’re magnificent to see.
Fantastic field trip today with A Watershed Year (Science 120 freshman experience course). First, we visited the brand new salmon viewing area at the water treatment facility in Santa Rosa, and then over to Occidental to look at salmon restoration efforts along Dutch Bill Creek.
I had the opportunity to attend a couple of fantastic events this week sponsored by ieSonoma (Innovate, Educate, Sonoma).
On Tuesday night, I attended the keynote address: “The Art of Possibility” by Benjamin Zander. He is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and he’s also an inspirational speaker who encourages a great deal of participation from his audience. Right from the start, he got us involved by inviting anyone who chose to do so to come up and sit on the stage with him. It seemed like a good idea, so my friend, Kandis, and I both decided to take him up on his offer. (You’ll see me in some of the photos below . . . I’m wearing a purple shirt). These photos were grabbed from the SSU Department of Education’s Flickr:
Read moreAs the semester winds to an end, I thought I’d share some artwork . . . a couple of things I drew for my students during finals week:
I found this one particularly touching:
“Thank You. You’ve actually caught my interests in science, which I never felt smart enough for. You’re also one of the most understanding and empathetic professors I’ve had, which helped with my severe anxiety disorder.”
This is so important to me. Being able to touch people’s lives in a positive way . . . well, that’s why I’m doing this. It feels really good to know that, at least some of the time, I’m hitting the mark.
“Asexual plants: only 1 parent required. Parent passes all its genes to offspring. Identical offspring, splits the contents of one cell into two.”
This makes me so happy. 🙂
Later, I found this comment at the bottom of her final exam:
